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Growing Christmas Cactus Plants: Watering, Light, Propagation, and More!
The Christmas cactus is a long-lasting holiday plant (move over, poinsettias!) that flowers in winter with colorful, tubular flowers in pink or lilac colors. Learn how to care for a Christmas cactus鈥攈ow much to water this succulent, how to get a Christmas cactus to bloom, and how to propagate for a gift that will give year after year!
About Christmas Cacti
The Christmas cactus () is a popular houseplant that blooms indoors in the winter, so it鈥檚 popular at holiday time and makes a great gift, too. Unlike regular cacti, however, this is not a plant from a dry, hot, desert location. Instead, this is a succulent native to tropical rainforests, where they grow on tree branches and soak up the high humidity, dappled sunlight, and warm temperatures.
The bottom line: Don鈥檛 treat a Christmas cactus like a run-of-the-mill cactus! It鈥檚 important to water these cacti more regularly but also to be cautious of keeping them too wet. (See detailed care instructions below.)
Holiday Cactus Types
There are three main types of 鈥渉oliday鈥 cacti out there: the Easter cactus (), the Thanksgiving cactus (S. truncata), and the Christmas cactus (S. x buckleyi). For simplicity鈥檚 sake, we refer to all three species as 鈥淐hristmas cactus鈥 on this page since the care is the same. See our article on the different types of holiday cacti and how to tell them apart.
Growing
How to Care for Christmas Cacti
- Plan to water every 2 to 3 weeks, but only water when the top one-third of the soil feels dry to the touch. For example, if the plant is in 6 inches of soil, water when the top 2 inches feel dry. (Use your finger to check!)
- When the soil is sufficiently dry, soak the soil until water runs through the pot鈥檚 drainage holes. Place a tray underneath the pot to catch the water. After 10-15 minutes, discard any excess water in the tray so that the pot doesn鈥檛 sit in water.
- It鈥檚 especially important to water well while the plant is flowering.
- From spring through early fall, feed every 2 weeks with a balanced houseplant fertilizer. Feed the cactus monthly in the fall and winter to encourage successful blooming.
- Prune plants in late spring to encourage branching and more flowers. Simply cut off a few sections of each stem; the plant will branch from the wound.
- If you wish, place the cut pieces in a lightly moist potting soil鈥攖hey root easily after a few weeks and make for excellent Christmas presents!
How to Get Your Christmas Cactus to Bloom
The blooms of Christmas cacti and its relatives are triggered by the cooler temperatures and longer fall nights. The three main types of holiday cacti generally bloom according to this schedule:
- Thanksgiving cacti are the earliest and longest bloomers, typically producing flowers from late fall through mid-winter.
- Christmas cacti tend to bloom from early winter to mid-winter.
- Easter cacti bloom from late winter to mid-spring.
If your cactus is NOT blooming, it may be receiving too much light or too high temperatures. Here are some tips to encourage yours to produce flowers!
- To trigger blooming, nights need to be at least 14 hours long and days between 8 to 10 hours for at least six weeks. If you have strong indoor lighting that鈥檚 on at night, you may need to cover your cactus or move it to an area that鈥檚 exposed to the natural light cycle.
- Flower buds form best when the plant is kept in temperatures between 50 and 60掳F (10 and 15掳C).
- You can kickstart the budding process by exposing the plant to temperatures of about 45掳F (7掳C) for several nights in a row.
- Make sure that you are consistent with watering while the plant is in flower. If the plant dries out too much, it may drop its buds.
- If the cactus sheds its buds one winter, don鈥檛 worry: it should bloom the following year!
Types
There are three main types of 鈥渉oliday cacti鈥 available:
- Thanksgiving cacti (Schlumbergera truncata) bloom from late fall to mid-winter and are often mislabeled as Christmas cacti.
- Christmas cacti (S. x buckleyi) bloom from early winter to mid-winter.
- Easter cacti (S. gaertneri) bloom from later winter to mid-spring.
Catherine Boeckmann
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I have had Christmas Cacti for the better part of 33 years (one of the plants was thought to have 鈥渄ied鈥 and was given to me when I said I鈥檇 like to take it - I was able to 鈥渃oax鈥 it back to life and have had it ever since, so who knows how old it actually is?) Regardless, I have always seemed to have had luck with these plants, watering about once every 3 weeks as well as rotating the pots a quarter of a turn. Just recently, a friend saw me do this and she said they should NEVER be rotated. I wonder now, what is the 鈥減roper鈥 way? Even though I鈥檝e managed to keep my plants alive for quite some time, have I been doing it all wrong?
Thank you for this great article. I may finally have some success with the new plant that I recently purchased. My plant already has a few blooms that have given all the beauty they can and I think they need to be removed. When and how is the best way to do this? Subject: Dead-heading Christmas Cactus blooms?
Deadheading all the spent blooms by pinching off the flowers. This also encourages the plant to continue blooming.
I gave my neighbor a clipping off my Christmas cactus and it us blooming beautiful with little white spikes coming from each flower mine never has so wondering what is causing it as it is beautiful
Hi Judy,
What a nice gift for your neighbor! Christmas cactus are a wonderful addition to the holiday season. From what you have explained, it sounds like you are describing the filaments that extend from the base of the plant’s blooms. At the end of these filaments are the anthers and are one way to determine if you have a Christmas cactus or Thanksgiving cactus. Christmas cactus anthers are purplish, while Thanksgiving are yellow. If your Christmas cactus is not producing filaments, it may be due to an underlying issue. You can refer to our Growing section above to see if there is anything that you may need to adjust to maximize the bloom of your plant.
When the flowers start wilting, should I pick them off or let them fall off by themselves.
When is a good time to repot the Christmas plant.
Hi Jean,
Late winter or early spring is the best time to repot a Christmas cactus. You want to wait until the blooming period has ended and the flowers have wilted. You never want to repot when the plant is actively blooming. One thing to know is that Christmas cactus like to be pot bound and should only be repotted every 3 or 4 years when roots begin to grow through its pot’s drainage holes or flower production has diminished from the previous year.
J ai mon cactus depuis 2 ans pr猫s de la fen锚tre j ai le soleil fin journ茅e la il est beau mais comment je fais pour svoir des fleurs . Une femme a dis mettre du lait j ose pas mes feuilles sont en sant茅 !
I've had luck moving my Christmas cactus into total darkness, not watering
for 30 days before returning to light. This is a large plant and has
not bloomed for 2 years. I tried moving it to the screened porch this
year. Still try the total darkness?
